Best Story Ever!

Last weekend I had off from racing. It was sweet. Great time to cram a couple more solid days of training in before Bromont and the 5 weeks after that. We are going to be racing back to back for the next bit. Nationals, 2 World Cups a US Cup and another race that I am forgetting at this moment, anyways in it is going to be the "core" races for my season.

Last week I got to play "farming", I was helping get the hay done while we had some sunshine and dry air. Being a Farmer is Fun! I mean it has its moments just like any other job, but where else can you go for a 120km bike ride, come home, then scarf down some recovery grub, grab some water and food, toss on clothes that are almost designated "bike rags" and then go play on big tractors? and there is really nobody to answer to, except if you break something. Which happens allot. It is totally acceptable to get as dirty as you want, swear as much as you can, because really, the dirtier you are the harder your working, and since you are almost wearing rags for clothes, when you do get covered in grease you get to just wipe it on your clothes! How sweet is that? Shower time sucks because heavy duty grease doesn't come off your skin that easy and it turns you into a permanent "grease monkey", and that sucks. Anyways it was a solid week of training and driving tractors chasing coyote's at midnight while stacking hay. Which brings me to my next story.

I just finished eating the best Orange ever! Not just a good orange, but one of those oranges that you are just like "man, that's a good orange"! and to really top it off, after I ate the "best orange ever" I ate one of the best Fuji apples ever too! Fruit rocks! Everything is in season and tastes better than candy! Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Wine, plums, peaches, you name it fruit is so good. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that beer tastes great too! Got a bit carried away with that last night, yes it is tuesday and yesterday was monday, but mondays are kind of like my "fridays" so it was totally fine. Tomorrow is Canada Day! Yay, Super yay! Wonder how that works? Canada Day on a Wednesday? The fruit brings to my next story....

I did a solid 125km ride today, got soaked more than once, actually like 5 serious downpours I had to ride through. The rain is fine, I really don't mind getting wet, as long as I have a rain jacket close by. In this case I was wearing it because I had no other place to stash it. My jersey pockets were full with other junk and that meant I either wear the hot, clammy, pain in the butt coat, or put it in a backpack or camelback, and I am not doing the latter. So off I went rain jacket and all, it ended up being a sweet ride, one of my favorite loops. Now just around the 105km mark I was suddenly being bombarded by this flying thing?!!! I think it was a Pheasant! and it was not leaving me alone.. It came so close to hitting me a couple of times, I was like "you have got to be kidding me, I am being ambushed by a bloody little bird"! I think finally it decided I was "alright" and it left me alone. Riding in Muskoka Rocks! I love being home, even just for a couple days. It is really one of the best road riding destinations I have found yet!. You get barked at a ton, that's fine, I can live with that. I only got barked at once today, and funny thing is it was not even a bloody dog! It was coming from a "pimped out" Dodge Neon. Oh ya, "High Roller" and after seeing the dude that was barking at me I had to laugh, because if he were to just take a quick glance in the mirror and see himself, he really didn't have any grounds to go on. It was hilarious, and the more I laughed at him the madder he got. Which made it even Funnier! Anyways I have to wrap this up somewhere, so I hope everyone has a solid Canada Day and, Oh Ya, FIREWORKS!!!!!

Canmore Canada Cup

Short and not so sweet. I had a off day yesterday, I had no problems with my bike, my body just didn't want to fire. I had a solid first lap and lost it from there. It was a amazing course to race on and I tried to make the best of a not so great day, at least I could enjoy the "mountain" descents. I tried to regroup my body and mind on lap two and three and tried to gas it on the last lap, it didn't quite play out as I had invisioned it, but on the other hand it was a fast race in a field with some serious horsepower, and if anything goes wrong or your body is just not cooperating there are 20 plus guys ready to gobble you up. I still finished 12th. On another note I had a great time over the last few weeks with a great crew from Alberta. They organized a solid event in Edmonton and were quite hospitable, thanks Kirk for the wicked accommodation. I am sitting in the airport writing this with my feet up, compression socks and all! I am ready to go home for some down time and a BBQ or two. Cheers.


-- Post From My iPhone

Long Spring? When is Summer going to be here?

Jasper!!!

The riding in Jasper is Phenomenal! There is a huge abundance of amazing trails, all right from town. We have had a couple solid days of MTB riding and seen some really cool sights. The town is definitely one that I have have to remember as I could spend more than only a couple of days here! We are heading down the parkway to Canmore tomorrow to get ready for Canada Cup 5 this weekend.

Canada cup #4 Edmonton

This is going to be a short and sweet post, as I am having trouble getting my computer conected to the Internet, and now I am on my phone typing.

The race started at 2pm right at the peak of the hot afternoon. We were going to have six laps but it got knocked down to five at the last minute, which was great especially with the lack of training in the heat that we have been doing which is a spin off of the crappy spring we have had. I had a fairly solid ride right from the gun and felt good for the most part. Around lap 4 or 5 I was really glad we were not going to be going around the hot dusty course 6 times and all I could think of was a cold bottle of water!! Kind of like a carrot dangling in front of me I chased hard and finished in 5th place. Happy and ready for a beer or two....


-- Post From My iPhone

Great Weekend.

This past weekend was the Trek Store Canada Cup at Hardwood Hills in Ontario. It was our third stop on the National Racing circuit. Saturday started with a "Meet and Greet the Trek Store Toronto Team" with myself and fellow teammates Adam, Emily, Peter and Mical. We went out for a couple of pre-ride laps with Ontario's up and coming talent, most of whom were racing the next day. We followed the ride up with a little autograph session and chatted with most. It was a fun day and really great to see the amount of young riders that we have riding so strong at such a young age.

Sunday I had a fairly solid race. I have been sick for the last two weeks and was very anxious for this event. After having a really bad day at Mount Tremblant I was in need of a solid ride. I was still not 100% but close enough. I had a plan to just go out, have fun, and "wing it". The first 3 of 5 laps went by rather quickly, I was in the top 5 ish group right from the start of the race and felt like my legs were going to cooperate today. Starting the 4th lap making a much needed "pass" I had to go "in the rough" and squeeze by a uncooperative lapped rider, doing that I torqued my chain and bent it pretty bad, I thought that it was going break. Now with Hardwood being such a fast race course, if my chain were to break and if I had to take the time and stop and fix it, I would have been gobbled up pretty quickly. I just prayed that it didn't break on me. I also had to be super careful on my pedaling and make sure I was making "bang on shifts". I lost the use of my big ring, I found out the hard way that a bent chain likes to jump off your big ring and trail behind you! Anyways a bent chain is still faster than a broken chain, you just have to be really careful. In the end the Trek store ended up having a really solid day out with the men taking 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th and the Woman taking 1st and 3rd. Props goes out to Cam, Adam, Peter, Mical and Emily for given'er. I ended the day with a 5th place and bit of relief that I am not sick anymore.